Secret: The Maid And The Sheikh

by Lara Hunter

  A car took them to the private beach house Adil had rented for them. It was a beautiful modern home, all white brick and glass right on the shore. It even had a pool, which Tracey found somewhat redundant, but still. To be able to stand on the sands of Hawaii, looking out at the ocean while the sun plunged to a fiery and fantastic end on the horizon, with Charlie playing in the sand in front of her and Adil holding her hand—it felt like a dream she never wanted to wake up from.

  Getting Charlie to bed was a bit of a struggle, excited as he was about being there. Understanding that, Tracey let him stay up a little late. But once he was finally settled down in one of the spacious bedrooms, Tracey joined Adil on the terrace. They sat together on a comfortable wicker love seat, close enough to feel each other's warmth in the cool night. Tracey watched the silver stars twinkle in the infinite black above the ocean. She'd never seen so many stars, but then again, she'd never been so far away from the city.

  "This is incredible," she said with a sigh, looking out at the rolling blue-black expanse of the sea, coiling like spilled silk, sea foam like embroidered pearls carried on each fold.

  "Wait until you see what I have planned for us tomorrow," Adil said, leaning back and closing his eyes. "I can't wait to show you everything. You're going to love it here, Tracey."

  Tracey smiled and leaned against his side, curling up against him.

  "I think it'll be hard to make me love it more than I already do," she said, and, smiling, he put his arm around her shoulders.

  "I've been here a dozen times at least," he said, "and I don't think I've ever loved it more than I do at this moment either."

  NINE

  Charlie woke them at dawn the next morning, jumping into Tracey's bed with excitement.

  "Get up, get up! We're in Hawaii!" he shouted, too excited to contain himself. Tracey was tempted to roll over and sleep in for another hour at least, but she couldn't deny Charlie any minute of this. They had to enjoy it while it lasted. And she was pretty excited to see the island herself.

  She dragged herself out of bed and downstairs, with Charlie chattering excitedly about everything he wanted to do.

  "I wanna build a sand castle and catch a fish and surf and see that-that, uh, that fire dance stuff!"

  "Poi," Tracey said through a yawn.

  "And climb a palm tree and eat a pig and see a volcano and—"

  "How about breakfast first?" she asked, still struggling to wake up.

  "Pancakes!" Charlie demanded.

  "Pancakes what?" Tracey asked.

  "Pancakes please, thank you!"

  "Very good."

  The kitchen was, surprisingly, freshly stocked. Adil must have had groceries delivered before they arrived. Tracey found everything for pancakes, some turkey bacon, and even some fruit. She got to work, pleased about the opportunity to surprise Adil after all he'd done for them so far.

  As the smell of breakfast filled the house, Adil wandered downstairs in a bathrobe, looking charmingly disheveled. Tracey was continuously astounded by his ability to look amazing all the time.

  "Good morning," he said through a yawn as he shuffled into the beautiful open kitchen.

  "Good morning!" Tracey and Charlie both replied. Tracey made a surprised noise as Adil wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, hiding his face in her hair. Tracey set aside the spatula she was flipping pancakes with to return his embrace.

  "You okay there?" she asked, chuckling.

  "The sun is too bright and you smell like breakfast," he said without taking his head from her shoulder. Half asleep like this, Tracey almost thought she didn't hear his accent. But, then, she wasn't so awake herself.

  "Go sit down and I'll bring you some coffee," she said with a smile. Part of her wanted to go on holding him, but she was embarrassed to be hugging him like this in front of Charlie.

  He reluctantly agreed and pulled away, stumbling off to sit at the table next to Charlie. Tracey poured a cup of coffee for him.

  "Are you dating my mom?" Charlie asked Adil bluntly. Tracey nearly dropped the coffee she was bringing to him, and Adil almost choked on air.

  "She doesn't usually let grown-ups hug her like that," Charlie said. "And on TV that's a dating thing. If she marries you, will she be a princess?"

  "Charlie, honey," Tracey said, turning red. "It isn't—"

  "No, wait," Adil said, making her pause before he turned to Charlie. "Yes, I would like to date your mother. We haven't been on a real date yet, so it's pretty early to be talking about getting married. But she is already a princess as far as I'm concerned."

  The cloud of butterflies in Tracey’s stomach started swarming, and she hide her grinning face, too pleased and embarrassed to say anything.

  "If she is interested in dating me, that is," Adil said, looking her way with a smile.

  "Well?" Charlie demanded. Tracey groaned.

  "Can I eat breakfast before I make such big decisions?" she asked. Adil laughed, and a few minutes later she joined them at the table with the food. As they ate breakfast together, Tracey reveled not just in the location, but in the feeling of family she'd been missing. Charlie was the world to her, but feeling like she wasn't alone in being responsible for him for the first time in ages felt wonderful.

  After breakfast, Charlie ran straight out onto the beach, and Tracey and Adil followed. All three of them spent the morning playing in the water. Charlie's favorite game was still to have Adil throw him as far as he could into the deeper water. Once, as Tracey was laughing at him, Adil picked her up and attempted to do the same to her. Tracey, flailing and laughing in surprise, managed to unbalance him and dunked them both. They came up gasping, though delighted, and clinging to each other as the waves rocked them toward the shore, turning like fond arms embracing them.

  Later, Adil took them to Honolulu for some shopping. Despite Tracey's protests, he bought her a new dress, as well as new clothes for Charlie and souvenirs for them all. They had lunch at a restaurant that normally booked its reservations six months in advance, but which opened its doors without question for the Sheikh. The food was some of the best Tracey had ever tasted, and it seemed to appear at the table without end, dish after dish until she could hardly breathe.

  After a few hours to digest, they spent the afternoon snorkelling off a thriving coral reef. Tracey drifted with quiet awe through silent shoals of shimmering, jewel-colored fish and watched the sunlight dance over the strange architectural shapes of spreading coral branches. Floating above the reef, watching the crabs and sea slugs and other abundant life crawl and dart among the forest of coral, she felt as though she were not swimming but flying, observing some alien world of incredible beauty. Adil, beside her, pointed silently and held her hand as a whale shark, huge and harmless and incredibly beautiful, its spots shining like stars on its dark blue back, glided serenely past them.

  Tracey had always had a deep love for nature. It was what had drawn her to her chosen field of study, despite the stumbling blocks that had kept her from taking that path. But she left the water with a new awe and respect for it, her desire to understand and be a part of that world renewed. Charlie emerged breathless and ecstatic, proclaiming he was not going to be an astronaut; he was going to be an oceanaut!

  "That would an oceanographer," Tracey told him with a chuckle. "Or maybe a marine biologist?"

  "I'm gonna be an oceanographer!" Charlie shouted, throwing his fists in the air as he slightly mangled the pronunciation.

  As the sun set, they attended a luau. Tracey wore the dress Adil had bought for her, a fine white silky maxi dress with a pink hibiscus pattern. The party was held in a secluded grove of palm trees and was decorated with lanterns that cast an almost magical light over the area. Among the curling fiddlehead ferns and the blooming flowers, scarlet and violet and as large as Tracey's hand, it felt like they'd been transported to some fantastical, magical countryside that was drenched in twilight. They ate platters of perfectly prepared local foods and watched performance
s of poi and hula. There was also a haka war dance that Charlie seemed to like even more than the fire dancing. He attempted to imitate the dancers’ moves, and, rather than discourage him as Tracey had expected, the dancers paused to teach him the moves, encouraging him to roar as they did when they struck their poses.

  This is so good for him, she thought as she watched him dance.

  Nothing could replace these kinds of experiences for a kid his age. She just wished she could stop worrying that it would all end at the drop of a hat. Adil would grow bored with her or would turn out to have had an ulterior motive, or some other terrible thing, and she would go back to struggling to get by on her own. She was prepared for that. She couldn't convince herself not to be. As kind as he was, as perfect as all of this was, she was still waiting for it to end.

  "Mom, Mom, Mom!" Charlie grabbed her by the arm, pulling her out of her seat. "They've got a fire walk!"

  Just aside from the tables, a handful of other guests were tying up their skirts and rolling up their pants legs to walk across a pit of coals.

  "I wanna do it!" Charlie said, jumping up and down. "Can I?"

  "Is it safe?" Tracey asked the coordinator overseeing the event.

  "Perfectly safe," he assured her. "You can walk with him if you want. Just don't stop walking; go straight through the middle. If you start to fall, someone on the side will catch you."

  She nodded and joined the line as the coordinator told a story about the kahunas of old walking on lava to strengthen their connection to the island's power. When it came to her turn, she squeezed Charlie's hand tightly and glanced over at Adil, who was standing aside and looking slightly worried. She smiled at him encouragingly before looking down at Charlie.

  "Ready?" she asked, and he nodded enthusiastically.

  They stepped forward, moving slowly but steadily across the coals, which felt only warm against the bottoms of Tracey's feet. Her fear quickly passed, as she realized there was nothing to be afraid of. Charlie whooped in triumph when they reached the other side, striking one of the haka poses in victory as the onlookers laughed and applauded.

  "Come on, Adil!" Tracey said with a laugh, waving the Sheikh over. "You should try it!"

  "I don't know," he said, eyeing the pit mistrustfully. "I'm not sure I can."

  "It's easy!" Tracey promised him, pulling him up to the edge of the pit. "I believe in you."

  She went to stand at the other side, ready to receive him. The coordinator gave him the rules, and then Adil, swallowing a lump in his throat and clearly nervous, stepped onto the coals. Once he'd realized they weren't burning him, he strode across with grace and confidence, taking Tracey in his arms on the other side and kissing her soundly. They parted, laughing with sheer, giddy joy at the perfection of the day.

  By the time the luau was over, the moon was high and full in the star-filled sky, and Charlie had haka'd himself into a stupor. Tracey carried him in one arm, her other hand holding Adil's as they walked back to the beach house. Charlie dozed on her shoulder, and she hummed a song from the luau as they walked beside the water, the quiet roar of the waves rushing up the sand and receding a soothing accompaniment.

  "Do you remember that movie about the unicorns trapped in the ocean, disguised as seafoam?" she asked Adil as they walked, watching the moon dance on the water.

  "Yes," Adil said, smiling. "That's an old one."

  "I always loved that image," Tracey said. "The waves as horses breaking the surface, running toward the shore."

  "According to Greek mythology," Adil said, "horses were the invention of the god of the sea. The god of the sky created the rose and challenged him to create something more beautiful. Horses were his answer, and he won the bet."

  "It's amazing to think the two things have been linked for so long." Tracey paused to watch the sea, the house only a few steps away. She wanted to make this moment last just a little longer. "Even so long ago, people still thought basically the same way. People were always just people."

  "People are still just people," Adil said, lacing his fingers with hers. "Regardless of where they come from."

  Tracey looked away, her eyes following a shell caught in the waves, pushed up the sand and then swept back, spinning and falling, almost dancing. She couldn't help but think of the gulf between them, yawning like the open ocean. To someone like him, how could she ever be anything more than common? Anything more than a burden to him?

  "I know it's true," Tracey said softly, "but it isn't that simple."

  He squeezed her hand tighter, and she glanced at him, seeing his mouth tighten as he struggled to find the right words.

  "It's okay," she said, forcing a smile. "This is still new. We have plenty of time to figure things out."

  "I want to figure things out," Adil said, turning to face her, letting her step closer to him, Charlie still sleeping on her shoulder. "There's something about you, Tracey. You're so much smarter than you think you are. You apply yourself to everything you do with everything you have. I've never seen anyone so passionate, like you're constantly trying to prove yourself. I know this is still new, but I want to be part of your life."

  "I want to be part of yours too," Tracey said, her voice a bare whisper, almost lost in the rush of the waves. He bent to kiss her, and as she turned her face up to meet him, lit by the moonlight, she felt a sadness in the contact—the sense that they were both, despite all their desire, holding back.

  TEN

  The next day, their moment on the beach went unmentioned, but it hung between them like a silver thread, occasionally awkward and obvious, other times a connection over which they might smile at each other knowingly.

  They spent the first half of the day hiking up one of the smaller volcanoes, wandering through what seemed to be an endless ocean of green, splashed with a jewel-toned rainbow of flowers and birds and insects, like living shards of stained glass. It was an easy climb, and from the top of the mountain they looked down on the island and the islands that surrounded it, like a gathering of green-robed women sitting serenely among the waves about some mysterious, magical business.

  Charlie, on Adil's shoulders, laughed and yelled as loud as he could, like from here the whole world must be able to hear him. Tracey had a keen sense of her own insignificance, looking down at the world spread out so small below them, lush with life too small to be seen. What was she, what was any human being, amid all this? They were equal to any beetle or butterfly, invisible here, lost among the trees. They were less by any measure than the birds, who soared above it all, their colors vibrant beyond anything else in nature, their calls heard for miles. And Adil was standing here beside her, on the same ground, no different from her. It was, somehow, encouraging.

  In the afternoon, Tracey and Adil relaxed on the beach, recovering from the long walk, while Charlie built sand castles and hunted seashells. Through some wizardry of money, Adil had a fine lunch of luxurious lobster tartine and fruits de mer delivered to them on the shore. On a blanket spread out on the sand, they fed each other bites of masterfully prepared seafood and watched Charlie chase seagulls. Whatever else happened, Tracey thought, she was going to hang on to this memory forever. This one weekend of luxury would be enough to sustain her through a lifetime of being a maid, if that was what she had to do.

  When the sun started setting, Adil disappeared for an hour and then returned to Tracey, who stood on the sand watching the sun sink into the ocean.

  "Where have you been?" she asked, smiling when she saw him. He held up a ribbon-bound box.

  "I had to prepare a few things," he said, handing the box to her. "Our flight home is booked for late tonight, and we still have a few hours to have dinner together. I've already hired a babysitter to watch Charlie. It will just be you and me."

  Tracey opened the box curiously, and her eyes widened when she saw the beautiful dress inside. It was red satin, simple but exquisitely made, and it was paired with a delicate gold necklace and diamond earrings.

  "Oh, Adi
l, you shouldn't have," Tracey murmured, trying to hand it back. "This is way too much."

  "Not even close to enough," he countered, pushing it back toward her. "Trust me, this is for me. I want to show you off tonight. Please, indulge me."

  Tracey bit her lip, looking down at the beautiful gown, and gave in to temptation.

  She hurried inside to change and do her makeup. A different person looked back at her from the mirror, someone sophisticated and confident, someone for whom lying on the beach in Hawaii eating lobster was nothing remarkable at all. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves, and when she smiled she found herself again. Whatever clothes she wore or money she had, she was still there underneath, doing her best, looking after Charlie. Nothing else mattered.